Look Out For… The Fireman by Joe Hill and Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

May 17, 2016

May 17, 2016

Look Out For… The Fireman by Joe Hill

“An imaginative, sprawling, muscular beast of a novel.”

Nobody knew where the virus came from.

FOX News said it had been set loose by ISIS, using spores that had been invented by the Russians in the 1980s. MSNBC said sources indicated it might’ve been created by engineers at Halliburton and stolen by culty Christian types fixated on the Book of Revelation. CNN reported both sides.

While every TV station debated the cause, the world burnt.

Pregnant school nurse, Harper Grayson, had seen lots of people burn on TV, but the first person she saw burn for real was in the playground behind the school.

With the epic scope of The Passage and the emotional impact of The Road, this is one woman’s story of survival at the end of the world.

Why We’re Excited About This Book:

“Some men just want to watch the world burn”–one of those men being Joe Hill, it seems. His new novel The Fireman tells the story of an apocalyptic plague known as ‘Dragonscale’ which causes the sufferer to spontaneously combust. Rather than show the effects of the disease across the world, Hill focuses on a small group of survivors including the central character Harper Grayson, who while trying to help the infected becomes infected herself…

An imaginative, sprawling, muscular beast of a novel, it may just be Hill’s best work to date. The apocalyptic nature of the story might mean this is a brutal and at times despairing novel, but there’s a glimmer of hope and humanity in it as well­–something resistant to the flames.

Look Out For… Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

“A new release by Stephen Graham Jones is always a reason to celebrate.”

A spellbinding and surreal coming-of-age story about a young boy living on the fringe with his family–who are secretly werewolves–and struggling to survive in a contemporary America that shuns them.

He was born an outsider, like the rest of his family. Poor yet resilient, he lives in the shadows with his aunt Libby and uncle Darren, folk who stubbornly make their way in a society that does not understand or want them. They are mongrels, mixed blood, neither this nor that. The boy at the centre of Mongrels must decide if he belongs on the road with his aunt and uncle, or if he fits with the people on the other side of the tracks.

For ten years, he and his family have lived a life of late-night exits and narrow escapes–always on the move across the South to stay one step ahead of the law. But the time is drawing near when Darren and Libby will finally know if their nephew is like them or not. And the close calls they’ve been running from for so long are catching up fast now. Everything is about to change.

A compelling and fascinating journey, Mongrels alternates between past and present to create an unforgettable portrait of a boy trying to understand his family and his place in a complex and unforgiving world.

Why We’re Excited About This Book:

A new release by Stephen Graham Jones is always a reason to celebrate, so get ready for Mongrels coming this month from Harper Voyager. This is a new, scruffy, flea-bitten take on the werewolf story. More than that, it’s a coming of age story. Most of us as teenagers had moments where we worried we’re not the same as everyone else. Well pity the unnamed narrator of Mongrels. He’s lived with his werewolf aunt and uncle all his life, so he doesn’t fit in with the rest of society. But he doesn’t know if he is a werewolf himself either…

Despite the dark and bloody narrative, here is a narrator that you’ll feel for as much as Holden Caulfield. An exhilarating, original and highly recommended release.